Nigeria: What Is The Future Of Our Democracy?

 By Dan Onwukwe

This is where our leaders miss it all: A President does not shape a new and personal vision of his country. He collects it from the scattered hopes of the citizens, past and present. This has guided nations that practice democracy every step of the way. It sustains every elected President. However, the question is: why is it that what has guided other democratic nations, and has sustained their democracies failed in Nigeria, and instead, has produced politics of hate and personal interest? 

The answer partly can be found in the fact that every nation is its own laboratory of democracy. As French political philosopher , Tocqueville said, “democratic men are more apt to complete a number of undertakings in rapidity than to raise lasting monuments of their achievements…; they go after success rather fame”. 

Nigeria: Mindset Of Our Politicians

By Passy Amaraegbu

The greatest minds are capable
of the greatest vices as well as
of the greatest virtues.
—Rene Descartes.

A family of five perishes in one night because their old generator caught fire at midnight and before neighbours could offer any help, the soot suffocates them. A professor of engineering dies in a general hospital due to poisoned intravenous injection he received. Famine is ravaging several villages because the indigenes can no longer engage in productive farming. The villages are now the den of robbers, kidnappers, killer herdsmen and marauders. The road network linking several villages, towns and communities have degenerated and disintegrated. Some of the roads that were repaired are also quickly being eroded systematically.

*Nigerian Politicians

No doubt, the situation in the various levels of our societal life may not always be as sordid as earlier portrayed but in some occasions it is or even worse. Our society has reached a negative tipping point. We are on the edge of the cliff and if no systematic and determined positive steps are taken by the citizens and the government, the result will be an imminent and inimical descent into catastrophe. 

Nigeria: Their Tomorrow Will Surely Come!

By Dan Amor

Are Nigerians hopeful of the day after? The collective answer to this rhetorical question is a resounding NO. If Nigerians are no longer hopeful of tomorrow, they deserve pardon. For, never in the history of mankind have a people been so brutalized by the very group of people who are supposed to protect and take care of them. They ought to be pardoned knowing full well that their manifest state of hopelessness has extended beyond disillusionment to a desperate and consuming nihilism. Which is why the only news one hears from Nigeria is soured news: violence, arson, killing, maiming, kidnapping, robbery, corruption, rape.

*Buhari, Obasanjo and Abdusalami

It is sad to note that Nigeria is gradually and steadily degenerating into the abyss. Even in a supposedly democratic dispensation, a sense of freedom, a feeling of an unconditional escape, a readiness for real and absolute change, is still the daydream of the whole citizenry. Everything is in readiness for the unexpected, and the unexpected is not in sight. You cannot possibly conceive what a rabble we look. We straggle along with far less cohesion than a flock of sheep. We are, in fact, even forced to believe that tomorrow will no longer come. Quite a handful of us are simply robots without souls, as we are hopeless because we are conditioned to a state of collective hopelessness.

Benue Massacre: Are Fulanis Fighting To Conquer Nigeria?

By E.O. Eke

November 2016, after Fulani herdsmen attacked had innocent villagers in Benue and Anambra states, I wrote an article entitled, Is Nigeria Still A Democracy? (Published 16 November 2016).

This is the worst of times, this is the best of times. This is a time to think, this is a time to prepare.

You murder peace when you kill justice. You end unity when you justify discrimination. You lose the trust and confidence of people when you practice nepotism. You invite violence when you make peacefully change impossible. You provoke violent response when you brutalise people by responding to peaceful protest with disproportionate force. These are natural imperatives which hold constant as the law of gravity.

After Victor Umeh’s Senatorial Triumph

By Chuks Iloegbunam

The argument wasn’t on whether or not Victor Umeh would emerge victorious in the January 13, 2018 Anambra Central Senatorial rerun election. It had to do with the range of victory he would post. In the November 18, 2017 Anambra gubernatorial election, Governor Obiano had won in all 21 local government areas in the state. The 100 percent result had led to Obiano acquiring the new sobriquet of '21 over 21'. Was Chief Umeh also going to post a 100 percent result by winning in all the seven local government areas of Anambra Central? He did win all over, earning himself the nickname of Seven Over Seven!

*Gov Obiano and Umeh

Not surprisingly, there have been two antipodal reactions to Chief Umeh’s emphatic triumph. APGA chieftains and foot soldiers are in uproarious celebrations; the losers have been whimpering. The celebrations are not about to end. The licking of wounds will linger for a while more. Both of them are transient, ultimately. They will cease. After they have passed, the pertinent and enduring question of what next will surface and entrench itself. That is the central concern of this piece.

APC: Always Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory!

By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

This party, APC, has this habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Every time.

1.   It won a clear victory during the presidential election with overwhelming support from all segments of Nigeria with the possible exception of SE/SS. World leaders praised the new APC president and saw a new and different Nigeria. His stock rose beyond the clouds.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

For four long months he could not form a government; made no speeches on the direction he would take the country to; was unable to present the legislature any supplementary budget; resorted to dictatorship by being a sole administrator; gave an unrealistic time frame for defeating Boko Haram (December 31, 2015), was unable to articulate his foreign policy as he addressed an empty United Nations Assembly; performed miserably in press conferences he had; demonstrated lack of knowledge as he could not tell which country is governed by Ms. Angela Merkel or what title she holds; showed that he was not aware that the Soviet Union no longer exists; etc. It was a complete failure each time he went abroad. The APC executive failed even before he started. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory

2.   If the executive was struggling to find its footing, the legislature was seen flat on its face. They had no clue when the inaugural meeting of the legislature was scheduled and so all but a handful were present when the Senate and House was called to order; and not present as congressional elections were conducted and therefore left open to seasoned PDP to impose officers on the majority. Thus the Senate and House leadership became a 50/50 sharing of senior offices for APC and PDP. When they realized that the animals have been late out of the gate the party started playing immature games and bickering and making self-destructive moves. The legislature like the executive snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

3.   As if the failures of the Executive and the Legislature were not enough, the ineptitude has now carried over to Kogi State. The unfortunate death of Mr. Audu so close to the election called for a leadership that is quick on its feet, but the party was/is led by a giant with clay feet. A good leader could have quickly found a substitute gubernatorial candidate or tried to stop INEC from proceeding with the election. A court action could have bought them some time to find another candidate, but the brainless, inept APC sat on her hands and an election was conducted. But their candidate was dead and only the living can be elected.

President Buhari Not Equipped To Lead In A Democracy - PDP

Press Statement

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) raises a rallying cry to all its members, supporters and lovers of democracy across the country to rise up and use all lawful means to resist anti-democratic forces, now using the judiciary and security agencies in their desperate scheme to subvert the will of the people and destroy the nation’s democracy.

*Buhari 

The party said though it seeks peace, it is not ready to accept the peace of a graveyard, neither is it willing to surrender the mandate freely given to it by the people in any part of the country, particularly in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, Abia, Taraba and other states where it won in the last general elections.

“Let it be known, and clearly too, that no matter the strong-arming, threats and manipulations by the APC government, the PDP is not willing to, and will never surrender the mandate freely given to us by the people in states where we won in the last general elections, neither are the people of those states willing to allow sectional invaders to exert influence on those to be in charge of their affairs” the party said in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh on Sunday.

The PDP said the desperation so far exhibited by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government in manipulating sensitive agencies of state like the judiciary and the security to further its bid to take over the rich states of Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Delta is totally against the spirit of democracy and peace bestowed by the PDP in conceding defeat at the Presidential election, but instead, an affront to the people and recipe for crisis in the polity.

Nigeria: Elections In The Season Of Fear

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

On Saturday (March 28, 2015), Nigerians will once again troop to the polls to choose who among the several contestants vigorously campaigning and scheming out there (mostly for self-serving reasons) would be their president and members of the Senate and House of Representatives for the next four years. In several other countries, including even some of our smaller and leanly-endowed neighbours here, election periods usually provide the populace with pleasant opportunities to savour the excitement of democracy.

People go to the polls with beaming faces exchanging pleasantries and banters while waiting to cast their votes. They are not gripped by any benumbing fear that some daredevil thugs might swoop on the voting centres to shoot into the air, snatch away ballot boxes, and, possibly, wound or even kill some people in the process. Even the contestants would just come to the voting centres with little or no security, and without any fanfare unobtrusively cast their votes like every other person.  And as they return to their homes, they are not looking over their shoulders to see if some killers hired by their opponents are trailing them to eliminate them.

The voters, too, would go home and enjoy another night of refreshing and peaceful sleep with their two eyes closed. The atmosphere is completely devoid of fear because they are not expecting that some hooligans would soon start disturbing the peace of the neighbourhood and looking for whom to kill or maim once emerging results begin to show that their paymaster is losing.

The expectation of Nigerians of decent will this time around is that we would be able to prove with this Saturday’s elections that our case cannot just remain egregiously different in the comity of nations, that we would not always be counted among the world’s perennially sick babies who are always distinguished by their inability to get even very simple things right.

2015 Nigerian Elections: Jonathan Will Not Win!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

                                                      

It is my considered opinion that President Goodluck Jonathan will not win the February 14, 2015 presidential election. But then, he will NOT also lose. And if Jonathan is declared winner after the votes had been cast and counted, it would not be because the people voted massively for him. It would be that Nigerians trooped out to overwhelmingly vote against the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari. 

*Jonathan

Although, President Jonathan has performed far better than his predecessors in office, especially, his arch-critic, former President Olusegun Obasanjo (who went all out to impoverish and ground the country despite the unprecedented earnings that poured into the treasury during his tenure from oil exports) and whose regime brazenly institutionalized corruption (thereby, proving that it was indeed possible to beat the solid record left by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime), what cannot be  denied is that Jonathan could have done far better than he has done. But, sadly, the APC whose candidate is Jonathan’s major challenger is just incapable of inspiring confidence. Although labouring to present themselves as the “face of change,” the APC people only succeed in making Jonathan more appealing to the people by the way they conduct themselves and their campaign.

And despite all the resources and efforts the party has deployed to market itself as an alternative to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it has only succeeded in solidifying the egregious impression that it is nothing other than the PDP’s dustbin, where mostly frustrated and disgruntled PDP members seek refuge and are heartily received no matter their past records.

We Are Succeeding Against All Odds - Pres. Jonathan

Text of President Goodluck Jonathan's Speech Declaring his 
Intention to Run for the 2015 Presidential Elections under 
the  Platform  of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

Eagle Square, Abuja

Tuesday 11^th November, 2014

Dear Compatriots:

Four years ago, precisely September 18, 2010, I stood in this Eagle Square, to offer myself for election as the President of our beloved country on the platform of our great party; the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 Seven months after that declaration, you elected me to lead this country with overwhelming support from all parts of our Nation. I remain grateful for the trust you reposed in me to lead our Nation through uncommon challenges in our march of progress as a united and democratic country.

Over the years, the Almighty God has made it possible for me to develop a bond with you and I am grateful for your support and understanding in the difficult periods we have journeyed through. 

 Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, our stewardship has not been without challenges. We have had to deal with the wave of insurgency that has swept through some parts of our dear country. Only yesterday, Government Science Secondary School in Yobe State was bombed by insurgents, killing our promising young children who were seeking education to build the country and support their parents. Many Nigerians have lost their lives and property to these mindless killings. Let me crave the indulgence of all present here to stand up to observe a minutes silence in honour of these young lads who lost their lives. Clearly, this has cast a dark cloud on our Nation but we will surely win the war against terror. A number of young men and women have been kidnapped by these criminal elements including our daughters from Chibok. We will free our daughters and defeat terror.

 We are equipping the armed forces and deploying special forces to engage the terrorist and end this senseless war. We must protect our country. We must save our people. I will do everything humanly possible to end this criminal violence in our Nation.